Interesting. Are other professions such doctors, lawyers and accountants paid the same way in CZ, eg, their rate depends on how complex the payee considers their work to be?
It depends who they work for. If you are a private customer and ask me to do some forensic analysis for you, I can ask whatever price I want. And you either take it or leave it. But if you are the state and want me to do exactly same work, I can ask only within allowed range of hourly rate. And furthermore I must choose from the range according to how much expertise is required.
Lawyers? If you turn to a lawyer as a private customer, he can ask whatever price he wants. But if he provides his services to the state, or if he is assigned to you by the court (ex offo), he can ask only within the specified range. They have even more detailed list of ranges - for each particular step (consultation with defendant, writing down a lawsuit, making an appeal) they have different ranges from which they can choose to charge.
Doctors? For example autopsy forensic experts don't even have ranges, they have list of exact prices they can ask for particular autopsy action. And of course there is some increase in case they do it during night or holidays, or if they work under difficult circumstances (like smelly corpse).
So, if you work for a private customer, you can ask whatever you want. If you work for the state, your revenue is regulated (unified). That way it's ensured that whichever forensic expert is asked by the the police investigator, his invoice will be (or should be) comparable with of any other forensic expert.
I don't think this is necessary a bad thing. If you want to buy a hamburger, you expect the same price regardless which McDonald you visit, don't you?
Or maybe a better example if you go to some state office and want something and there is some fee, you expect that the fee is always the same regardless which civil servant is serving you, right?
All the CF examiners that I know bill the same rate whether they are actively performing imaging, conducting analysis, or writing up reports. It requires just as much skill to write up a proper expert report as it does to conduct the examination itself, and it's still time spent actively working on the case.
All the CF examiners that I know bill the same rate whether they are actively performing imaging, conducting analysis, or writing up reports. It requires just as much skill to write up a proper expert report as it does to conduct the examination itself, and it's still time spent actively working on the case.
Patrick (and others), thanks for echoing my earlier post. Just out of interest, say you are called by the defence to review an image containing CP and therefore you have to travel to a law enforcement facility to do this, would you include travelling time in your list of activities that attract the same hourly rate? Or is this charged as 'expenses'.
Our policy is to have a fixed fee for such items as imaging. We know that it takes x amount of our time (generally) to set up a machine for imaging so we charge x + y where y is a finger in the air figure designed to cover those cases which take longer and to cover the cost of the imaging equipment. If it takes a little less time then we win - but overall I think it is fair.
At the end of the day it is also what sound reasonable to the client - you can't charge 8 hours for imaging a 2TB drive (unless on site and watching the progress bar) but then charging 30 minutes is unreasonable also
Just out of interest, say you are called by the defence to review an image containing CP and therefore you have to travel to a law enforcement facility to do this, would you include travelling time in your list of activities that attract the same hourly rate? Or is this charged as 'expenses'.
I have a service area which comprises the 8 counties surrounding Memphis. Within that area, I don't charge for callouts. Outside, I have a travel rate plus mileage.